Notes:
The 9-day National Tribal Festival “Aadi Mahotsav” is a joint initiative of Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs & Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED). On 17th August 2019, the fest is started at Polo Ground in Leh-Ladakh with theme “A celebration of the spirit of Tribal Craft, Culture and Commerce”. The event will see around 160 Tribal artisans from more than 20 states across the country, actively participating and showcasing their masterpieces. The mahotsav will showcase traditional art and handicrafts and cultural heritage of the country. The product range will consists of Tribal Textiles from Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal; Tribal Jewellery from Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and North East; Tribal Paintings like Gond art from Madhya Pradesh, Warli art from Maharashtra; Metal craft from Chhattisgarh; Black pottery from Manipur, and Naturals and Organic products from Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

Notes:
Rizia Rahman (79), the renowned Bangladeshi novelist and the Ekushey Padak winning author, has passed away in Dhaka on August 17, 2019. She was born in Kolkata in 1939 and migrated to East Bengal after the partition. Rizia wrote in all genres of creative work viz. short stories, poems, essays and children’s fiction but she was renowned for her novels. Some of her well-known novels are as follows: Bong Theke Bangla, Rokter Okshor and Ghar-Bhanga-Ghar.

Notes:
In Uttar Pradesh, the state government has decided to set up Atal Bihari Vajpayee residential schools for children of labourers in all 18 divisions of state. Beside this, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced many projects in state in remembrance of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee including a memorial in Bateshwar, the former prime minister’s native village in Agra. A ‘Centre of Excellence’ will also establish in DAV College in Kanpur where Atal ji had his education. The state government also announced that the work to set up a medical university in Lucknow is underway and a satellite centre of KGMU is being set up in Balrampur, from where Vajpayee had contested elections in 1957.

Notes:
On the eve of 73rd Independence day, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the Grama and Ward Volunteer system for effective delivery of schemes. The basic idea behind implementing the scheme is to ensure corruption-free governance and last-mile delivery of welfare schemes and services to every household and citizen in the State. The scheme will involve over 2.8 lakh volunteers. Under the scheme, one volunteer will cover 50 families in each village. Identity cards will be given to each volunteer and they would get an honorarium of Rs 5,000 per month. A toll-free telephone number – 1902 – would be set up at the call centre in the Chief Minister Office to receive the grievances of the people.

Notes:
On the occasion of the 73rd Independence Day 2019, ISRO Chairman Dr Kailasavadivoo Sivan has been honoured with the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam award by the Tamil Nadu government. However, Dr. Sivan could not receive the award at the Independence Day celebrations at Fort St. George but he is expected to collect the award from the Chief Minister at a later date. He won the award in recognition of his stellar work in promotion of science and technology. The Kalam award is to honour those who work for promoting scientific growth, humanities and students’ welfare and the awardees should hail from Tamil Nadu. The award carries 8 gm gold medal, Rs. 5 lakh in cash and a citation.